I planned to install another distro of Linux onto my main desktop for a while, but never quite got around for a variety of reasons, mostly "don't need it yet."
The main impetus to use Linux over Windows is the ease of programming. Windows is incredibly annoying and finicky when it comes to configuring console-related development tools. I've ranted about Python's really irritating situation with setting working directories properly and activating the interpreter from cmd plenty of times. Then there's the general situation with needing to add all the right directories into $PATH environment variables. None of these situations are as bad on Linux, being inherently console-focused and having a much easier $PATH to deal with.
Python pains was "good reason #1" but not so urgent as to immediately push me into installing Linux.
But oh boy, Javascript quickly rocketed to "immediate reason #1" when I attempted (attempted, not started) learning Node.js.
For one, Node.js stopped supporting Windows 7 several major versions ago, so that's automatically a no go. Another reason quickly showed itself as nvm, a version manager that can help setup different versions of Node.js and switch them on the fly as necessary, is not natively supported on Windows. Unofficial versions exist, but as is with a lot of development tools on Windows, they're inferior to the original Linux versions.
Guess I'll suffer ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I've tried Ubuntu and Debian before. I liked them but wanted to try an Arch distro again. Not that it's my first time with Arch, I did maintain vanilla Arch in college for 2 years before deciding life is too short to maintaining vanilla Arch and switched to Debian. I had no interest in investing that much effort in an Arch install ever again, but I did want an Arch-based distro so I can pick my battles. If putting in the effort to figure something out was worth it, I can choose to spend my time on it.
My bookmarks linked to Manjaro, Antergos, and Archbang. Manjaro seemed ok, Antergos was discontinued, and Archbang still looked like more work than I wanted.
After purging bookmarks and looking at new distros that popped up since A Long Time Ago(TM), I found EndeavourOS, a spiritual successor to Antergos. The final winner of the Linuxbowl is EOS.
I like it so far. Still a lot of knowledge refreshing for setting up window managers, keyboard shortcuts, and installing my own programs, but I haven't spent more time figuring out anything I didn't consider a good time investment. I think I'll keep it.
And I can finally start learning Node.js seriously.
Imagine putting all that work just so I can work on a modern version of a programming language. Smh.
Unrelated fun story about drivers.
When I installed Ubuntu and Debian in college, the kernels came with broken drivers for specific Realtek ethernet cards. Fixing it requiring downloading the proper driver from Realtek's website, compiling it, and inserting it into the kernel. I even found the blog post from 2011 I used to fix my system. What a blast from the past. Seems like Realtek caused issues even as far back as 2003. Lmao.
10 years later, we're still having problems with Realtek cards. And apparently Broadcom wifi are also huge offenders when it comes to proper driver support. By the time I die, that Realtek issue will probably still be there and require manual intervention.
Now, to be fair to the community, better support and packages to deal with this situation have been developed since then, so while it's still not nearly as bad to fix, it's still funny seeing these kinds of timeless problems persist across generations.